Some may regard Gertrude Stein as the mother and muse of Modernism. She is best known for collecting and developing modernism in both Art and Literature. As an American author and poet, on the other hand, she does not receive recognition and popularity compared to her male counterparts during the era. She was born in America to upper-class Jewish immigrants and later moved to London then Paris with her (art collector, critic, and painter) brother Leo in 1902 and 1903 respectively.
Together they became avant-garde art collectors, investing and buying Gauguins, Cezannes, and Renoirs at Vollard’s Gallery. They opened up their living quarters at 27 rue de Fleurus to hold Saturday evening salons. That was where many minds of Modernism came together to interact and exchange their intellectual and creative ideas. That was where artists and authors such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson frequented. That was also where Stein recounted a story and said to Hemingway: “That is what you are. That’s what you all are … all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation.” Writers that usually come to mind when we think of the Lost Generation are Hemingway, Fitzgerald and T.S. Eliot. Stein was particularly close to Picasso (and Hemingway). She sat for a portrait by Picasso whom had never had anyone pose for him since he was 16. He was then 24 and Stein had never thought of having her portrait painted. When someone commented that Stein didn’t look like her portrait, Picasso replied, “She will”.
Gertrude Stein sitting on a sofa in her Paris studio, with a portrait of her by Pablo Picasso, and other modern art paintings hanging on the wall behind her. May 1930.
The relationship between women and patronage has existed for centuries despite many silences in documents regarding women’s role in the arts. Traditional patronage conventionally belonged to the middle-upper class domains as they own wealth and resources to commission art works. Compared to traditional female patrons of art, I believe Gertrude Stein is more active in her engagement with art and artists. Besides recognizing and collecting avant-garde pieces, she attempts to build her own literary career. She experimented with language and linguistic conventions, typical of other Modernist writers. Some may regard it as incoherent and unimportant, yet she has participated and contributed her part to modernist literature. Some may also argue about her political affiliations as they regard her ability to survive the war with her possessions intact suspicious despite her being a Jewish under Nazi Germany’s occupation in France. They claimed that Stein was protected by her friend Bernard Fay who was a Vichy collaborator (a regime responsible for the deportation of Jews to concentration camps). Should we critically view an artist distinct or connected to their political affiliations? That is a debate that will go on seemingly forever.
Africa is not a country, it is a continent. There is a problem of image and perception when many people conflate Africa into a single country. There are 54 internationally recognized countries and people of diverse cultures, languages, religions, and ethnicity. The way we think, talk, teach, and report news about Africa in the media should change. Africa is immensely huge that it could fit in the USA, China, India, Europe combined! This image by German software and graphical user interface designer Kai Krause serves to change how we think – Africa is immense, much larger than what we thought.
“The True Size of Africa”. A small contribution in the fight against rampaint Immappancy, by Kai Krause
Many westerners claim that Africa had only an oral tradition and non-literate culture – that Africa had no written history, literature, and philosophy. A different truth is emerging, thus the rewriting African history – The discovery of manuscripts in Timbuktu, Mali. The majority of the manuscripts were written in Arabic and the dates ranged between late 13th to early 20th centuries. From the National Geographic:
“Since the 12th century, accompanying the camel caravans rode the intrepid scholars of Islamic learning, bringing with them over time hundreds of thousands of manuscripts. These bound texts highlighted the great teachings of Islam during the Middle Ages. These sacred manuscripts covered an array of subjects: astronomy, medicine, mathematics, chemistry, judicial law, government, and Islamic conflict resolution. Islamic study during this period of human history, when the intellectual evolution had stalled in the rest of Europe, was growing, evolving, and breaking new ground in the fields of science, mathematics, astronomy, law, and philosophy within the Muslim world.”
Furthermore… “With the pressures of poverty, a series of droughts, and a tribal Tureg rebellion in Mali that lasted over ten years, the manuscripts continue to disappear into the black market, where they are illegally sold to private and university collections in Europe and the United States.” This reveals another face of neocolonialism as Western nations demand and buy these manuscripts. Perhaps their excuse will be – for the safety and security of the books against the threat at home.
Throughout history, Africa has been colonized, its resources have been plundered, many of their languages are extinct/dying out, etc. In this post, I will focus more on the trade of African ivories. The problem of ivory is not a new phenomena despite it being undeniably a global problem now. During the late 15th/early 16th century, Afro-Portuguese ivories were transported from West Coast Africa to Europe. The Portuguese wanted to gain greater wealth (gold and ivory in Africa) and also to secure a route to India for salt and spices. Portugal’s extended contact with Islam during the medieval period (al-Andalus) provided the people with math knowledge and sailing techniques. The knowledge and skills in sea navigation and maritime technology led to their success in exploring Africa.
Afro-Portuguese ivories reflect both indigenous African and Renaissance Europe aesthetic and cultural elements. The ivories were carved into salt-cellars, spoons,pyx, oliphants (side-blow horns), etc. They were intended for the patrons of Portugal’s voyages. It should be noted that the Portuguese were not the first to obtain ivory from Africa into Europe. For more information on the power of ivory throughout the ages, do take a look at “Ivory’s Ghosts: The White Gold of History and the Fate of the Elephants” by John Walker.
“Ivory’s Ghosts” by John Frederick Walker.
It should not be that much of a surprise finding Christian religious imagery of the Mary and Child on the ivories as Christianity in Africa started ages back in the middle of the 1st century. The conquest of North Africa by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate ended Catholicism for several centuries (it still persisted in several regions!). Christianity came to Sub-Saharan Africa with the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century, and from then on the increase in Christian missionaries and colonialism in Africa. Other early ivories in Europe from Africa would be the Byzantine ivories. Majority were transported via Egypt from East Africa into Constantinople.
Salt-cellar with the Virgin and Child. From Benin, probably 16th century.“Icon with the Virgin and Child”. Carved mid–10th–11th century Byzantine; Probably made in Constantinople
In the 15th century, many elephants were disappearing from along the West Coast of Africa due to over-hunting and relentless demand. Similarly, African elephants could be extinct within a decade. Today, we are facing a huge problem with illegal poaching and trade of ivory around the world. One of the main roots of this problem is the relationship between ivory and ammunition. Terrorist groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony killed elephants for ivory that serves as finance for their fighting. They trade ivory for arms, sugar, salt, etc. Click here to follow the interactive map: “Tracking the Illegal Tusk Trade” by National Geographic.
Trade in ivory helps bankroll the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), infamous for killings and abductions in east and central Africa. Former LRA child conscript Michael Oryem says he poached and hide ivory: Once he escaped, he led U.S. and Ugandan forces to a cache. (National Geographic)
Ivory, or white gold, has always been associated to religious imagery. Beautiful, pure, and sacred. How can we ignore the reality of the slaughter and near extinction of wildlife animals, how can we ignore the killings and exploitation of the African victims in the hands of rebel groups surviving mainly due to their dependence on the ivory trade?
As seen throughout history, art has always been a part of human civilization and humanity. Art is the expression of the human mind and soul. Everyone has a story to tell, in various different forms and mediums. Be it to the public, or for their own private self.
Art reveals the desperation and suffering of the human soul. It also reveals the desires repressed within, longing to be expressed and heard. One turns to art in the moment of sorrow, grief, and depression. Some may reject the notion of baring one’s self to the others whom are deemed as unsympathetic to one’s own predicaments, caught up in their own chase and chaos that is life. But yet these art reveal the hurt inflicted to their hearts and souls that yearn to be known, felt, and understood. We feel for the artists, and for ourselves.
The Absinthe Drinker by Viktor Oliva (1861–1928)
On 23 August 2015 it was reported that the temple of Baal Shamin, one of the best-preserved and most unique buildings on the site, had been levelled by explosives.
Palmyra is not just a spectacular archaeological site, beautifully preserved, excavated and curated.’ Photograph: Christophe Charon/AFP/Getty Images
Art is when the heart breaks, listening and watching the destruction of history and cultures of the ancient world. To whom do we turn to when confronted with the ignorant and murderers of art and humanity? We have seen the efforts and victories of the Monuments Men against Nazi Germany during World War II. Today, we are faced with ISIS’s use of social media to explicitly document and portray their acts of destruction. They have distorted and corrupted art/culture into weapons of war. How do we go on rescuing the victims, saving our humanity, and preserving the past for the present and the future?
A caravan passes through the ruins of Palymra in the 1930s. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
